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On her stunner of a second album, Rosie Thomas again shows that gestures needn't be grand to be powerful. In some ways, her indie-folk sound has a lot in common with close pal, periodic collaborator, and fellow Seattle-ite Damien Jurado's: fragile ac...

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It's unfortunate that the term world beat has become synonymous with middle-aged yoga bodies, orange chi pants, and bad b.o. It's worse still that some of the world's most innovative artists are forced to share space in the same record bin as Mickey ...

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Coheed and Cambria is that rare band that can draw from contrary rock movements and not appear confused and pretentious. Influenced by the hardcore from New York City and the pop of their suburban youth, the quartet flits between violent barks and su...

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If there were any justice in the world, the American Heritage Dictionary's definition of giant would have a picture of Solomon Burke next to it. Nothing the 400-pound, 62-year-old father of 21 known as the "King of Rock and Soul" does is small. Burke...

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The numbers, at first glance, don't add up. Three albums after playing for more than 30 years may not sound right, but nobody said the climb to the top of the blues world, especially for Michael Burks, would be easy.
In the late 1970s, Burks led a ...

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The work ethic ingrained in Death Cab for Cutie singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard is the sort Sly Stone never mastered. Gibbard, who is 27 years old, is already doing a phone interview at 9:30 this morning, even though he was up well past 3 a.m. Instead o...

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Mark Farina is a San Francisco resident by way of Chicago, and his name is as revered as other Windy City DJs such as Derrick Carter and Roger Sanchez. Though Farina is best-known for his smoking live sets and the successful Mushroom Jazz series of m...

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Some day, Slug is going to find a loving, mature relationship with a sensible wonderful woman. He will be grateful to have finally arrived at that happy destination, and Lord knows he'll deserve it. But it's gonna be hell on his invigorating music.
...

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While Portishead is on indefinite hiatus, the voice of the groundbreaking duo, Beth Gibbons, has found another collaborator in former Talk Talk bass player Paul Webb, a.k.a. Rustin Man. On Out of Season, the duo's first effort together, Webb brings o...

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While last year's self-titled debut from this Richmond, Virginia, quartet received its share of Bjrk comparisons, the group's sophomore offering is likely to stand on its own merits rather than its trip-hop stylings and Maura Davis' voice, which can...

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Joe Strummer was well into his life's second act when a heart attack felled him last December at age 50. After more than a decade of relative silence following the dissolution of the Clash, the iconic singer-guitarist finally came to terms with his p...

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Last summer, Doria Roberts appeared under the banner "Twat Rocker" on the cover of lesbian interest magazine Velvet Park and proclaimed herself a "pissed-off, rock 'n' roll, dyke-nigger bitch." Following the self-made folkstresses who've come before ...

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What can be said about Fort Lauderdale's neighbor to the north -- Pompano Beach? Unless you enjoy mullet-spotting, sports bars, or lying facedown in a pool of your own sick after that sixth shot of tequila -- well, not a whole lot. But much can be sa...

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Lucky Dube sits in his office and watches the busy lunchtime hustle from his Johannesburg window. Back here in South Florida, the sun hasn't even risen yet. It's too early to contemplate even coffee at this hour.
Dube reflects on how things have ch...

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Anyone who has listened to Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evora has heard the word sodade. In Creolu, the mixture of Portuguese and West African languages spoken on the tiny chain of islands 300 miles off the coast of Senegal, sodade means nostalgia, ye...

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The Rapture arrive like a prince at the dance-punk potluck with Echoes, a casserole of crispy electroclash-ic percussion, gooey blues guitar, and bubbling vocals. Think the Faint meets White Stripes and you'll come close. Containing the much and just...

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Montreal-based Kid Koala (born Eric San) is not only a world-class DJ on eclectic British electronica label Ninja Tune and a member of jazz-jam-fusion band Bullfrog. He's also the author of a darkly cryptic graphic novel. Published earlier this year,...

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Details magazine proclaimed I'll Take It "the best album by a New York band since Remain in Light" -- such gushing has been common for Brooklyn's Mink Lungs. Unlikely candidates for antiscenester royalty -- Talking Heads be hanged -- the band is infi...